1. Why have the beloved unsheathed the swords of estrangement?
Where are the covenants and what have they bound in their hearts?

2. I kept the covenant of a friend yet he abandoned our intimacy
So treachery appeared atop his head like horns.

3. They wielded on my ribs the chisel of their estrangement
When they distanced me and lopped off the branches of bliss.

4. They battered my liver with the stick of their passion—
How I wish they had battered with union those they battered!

5. I ransom them though the embers of my entrails blaze
With their estrangement. Did they do justice in that or apportion?

6. Indeed they did justice and the just are they,
And justice towards them has come, intending to bind.

7. But I was unkind so their affection was unkind to me
And their secrets have revealed to me a condition.

8. They distanced me though I felt intimacy with them close—
I excused them, for I was far from what they stipulated

9. Since they were safe, their consciences were purified,
So it annoyed them that I was offensive to them.

10. Thus they scorned me and excluded me and brought me near
The grief whose judgment was so immoderate.

11. If only a scent of Yusuf’s shirt would intercede for me
To please them—if they are angry, they would be pleased with me.

12. Rather, their pleasure is in His pleasure, and that is what
Wisdom, dew, noble manners and generosity witnessed.

13. It witnessed the triumph of religion and the darkening
Of banners, and the command of passion is under its control.

14. The four branches of knowledge have not been
Circled by the eminent, neither elite nor commoner.

15. He who has lit from its light the lamp of guidance
And tied to excellence the steeds of piety and patience,

16. And plucked the flowers spreading the wisdom’s growth
And picked the jewels containing the essence of knowledge,

17. May his glory for us and Allah’s religion remain
For without you, religion would have no composed pattern.